Day 5: Budapest

I was so tired that I fell into bed well before 10 last night and still found it difficult to get into the groove today. The flat is really comfortable and well equipped, so I did a quick load of washing before setting out.

Budapest has always been a magical place of my imagination, split into Buda and Pest by the river, gateway to the East, part of the Ottoman Empire, joint capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire, folklore, Magyars etc etc. I wish I was staying a bit longer to see more of what superficially seems like a modern European city but clearly has much more to discover.

It also reminds me of a rhyme my grandfather used to recite: Austria was Hungary/Very Very Hungary/Ate a bit of Turkey/Dipped in Greece/Long-legged Italy, kicked poor Sicily/Into the Mediterranean Sea. I just found that version via Google because I couldn’t remember it exactly, but I’m sure my grandfather’s wording was slightly different.

I headed for the river Danube and walked along its banks to the Great Market Hall, an amazing covered market.

Unfortunately dogs aren’t allowed in, or maybe they meant wolves. It was hard to tell.

Undeterred, I headed over the nearby Liberty Bridge and climbed up into the park giving great views over the city.

Eventually I wended my way back to the flat and on the way was unable to resist a chimney cake, a leavened sweet delight cooked over charcoal on a spit with various fillings. They’re the same as the trdelnik in Prague.

Lottie happily flaked out after a morning’s sightseeing, so I left her snoring in the apartment and set off for the day’s main attraction, a trip to the Széchenyi thermal spa.

Before that, I was buying Lotttie’s dog ticket for tomorrow’s trip online and suddenly realised that I’ll be leaving Budapest from a different station from my arrival station. Good job I checked! The new station is about 3 miles away. Too far to walk so it’ll be a tram ride. That meant a detour to the tram stop to do a recce and get a tram ticket to save a lot of faffing around tomorrow.

Luckily tomorrow’s tram stop turned out to be right next door to the metro station and after initially feeling a bit daunted by the logistics, I was relieved to find I could hop straight onto metro line 1 to the baths and be there in 10 minutes.

The baths were everything I’d been promised and more. The pools range in temperature from 28 to 40C and I swam a few lengths in the never-ending fitness pool, swirled round the flume in another pool, hung around in the 38C pool watching the chess players and then went inside to sample the indoor pools. Shame I haven’t got more photos, but iPhones and water don’t really mix.

I could happily spend all week in Budapest sightseeing and going to the spa every day. The next thing on my list would definitely be a boat trip to Római-part to walk and picnic by the Danube. Sadly I’m on a tight schedule, though, and tomorrow I’ll heading for Graz via Vienna.